STEVIE NICKS INFO

Category: Paul Fishkin

  • Paul Fishkin on Stevie Nicks’ creativity, confidence

    Paul Fishkin on Stevie Nicks’ creativity, confidence

    The talent and force of nature that is Stevie Nicks is undeniable. Her style and charisma riveted the world and her music defined a generation. But beyond that, she found her voice in a time and place where women struggled to be heard.

    As part of Fleetwood Mac, Stevie co-wrote and sang on Rumours, one of the most successful, best-selling albums of all time. It became their legacy and songs like “Go Your Own Way,” “Dreams,” and “The Chain,” would mark the cornerstone of their success for decades to come. Fleetwood Mac made history and would be acknowledged as one of the most influential rock bands to come out of that era. But there was much more music in Stevie to give. Paul Fishkin, who was President of Bearsville Records and dated Stevie Nicks at the time, played a pivotal role in Stevie’s decision to inevitably launch a solo career. “She loved being in the group, but she was overflowing with artistic ideas, and she needed more than that, to be constrained by three songs a record and constrained by the fact that she couldn’t do anything else.”

    The decision to start a solo career wasn’t an easy one and was met with both opposition and doubt. Even though her loyalty was still to Fleetwood Mac, starting projects outside of your group wasn’t something that was encouraged, especially in the ’70s. Going solo was considered the kiss of death by industry standards. But Stevie made the leap of faith and joined Modern Records, founded by Paul Fishkin and Danny Goldberg. She would go on to record her next five solo albums with the label, including quadruple-platinum Bella Donna. Not only was Stevie a massive success as part of Fleetwood Mac, but she gained the recognition she deserved as a solo artist, marking her place in history as a legend and an icon.

    Stevie Nicks is a powerful songwriter and songstress, but she is also a pioneer. She broke the status quo of what women in the industry were supposed to be and forged her own path. She wore what she wanted, sang what she wanted, and didn’t let anyone else define who she was. In a conversation I had with Paul, he so eloquently said:

    “If you have the strength to do what you want in the way you want to do it and not be a prisoner of what our society and culture demand of us, if you have the absolute faith in what you wanna do and have the balls to do it, that’s a heroic idea…to not be in fear of what the rules are telling you to do. Just do what you feel is the best for your creativity and not compromise it, and so Stevie had that belief in herself and that belief in the idea that her artistic view and creativity was important for her and that she would do it and not let anybody discourage her from doing that. She was in a man’s world, but she wasn’t going to let herself be talked out of what she was doing. And even though at times she got intimidated by male musicians, and they hurt her feelings, she stood up to that.”

    Stevie Nicks believed in her abilities, had faith in herself, and was fearless when it came to sharing her music with the world. There was strength in her vulnerability, and beauty in her fight. She went her own way and laid the blueprint for countless others to follow, even to this day.

    It takes nerves of steel to stand on your own as a female artist in the face of adversity and in the faces of those who doubt you. It takes courage to be willing to share your gift, at the risk of opening yourself up to criticism. And it takes a hero to do it all with grace.

    Stevie Nicks is and always will be a pioneer, an icon, and a hero.

    Keldine Hull / Inspirer / July 18, 2017

  • Danny Goldberg: I was saved by Stevie Nicks

    Danny Goldberg’s new book Bumping into Geniuses: My Life in the Rock and Roll Business was released today. Goldberg writes extensively about Stevie, devoting 27 pages to her in the chapter “Stevie Nicks: Turning Rainbows into Music into Gold”. He describes his initial meeting with her at a party, her “extremely limited clout” in Fleetwood Mac, and the series of events that led to her solo career debut in 1981. He also writes at length about Stevie’s relationship with Paul Fishkin, who was pivotal in launching Stevie’s solo career.

    The following is an excerpt from the chapter “Stevie Nicks: Turning Rainbows into Music and Music into Gold”:

    “I knew that Peter Grant was right that rock stars held the real power in the business, but it took me some time to make it work for me. My ambitions were such that it wasn’t enough just to be thought of as a good PR person, since rock PR rarely led to career opportunities other than more rock PR. By the spring of 1979 it had been three years since I had left Swan Song, I was soon to turn twenty-nine with thirty looming ominously on the horizon, and I was consumed with the fear that my success with Zeppelin had been a fluke. The money that came in from PR fees didn’t always pay my monthly bills. I took a series of loans from my parents that added up over time to thirteen thousand dollars and I didn’t have any plan except to just stay in the game. I was saved by Stevie Nicks.

    I met Stevie when she was dating Paul Fishkin, who was president of Albert Grossman’s Bearsville Records and one of my best friends. Bearsville’s first hit had been “We Gotta Get You a Woman” by Todd Rundgren, who had grown up with Paul in Philadelphia and had written the song about him. Paul’s adolescent shyness had long since left by the time I had met him during my brief stint working for Grossman’s music publishing company. He had long curly black hair and a bushy black mustache and was a bit of a dandy, dressed in the expensive and well-tailored velvet-and-leather hippie clothing prevalent at the time. Paul always seemed to have an attractive woman on his arm but also had a gregarious affability that made him one of the guys.

    Paul had developed an expertise in pop and rock radio promotion and was so instrumental in getting the blues-rock group Foghat to million-selling (platinum) sales status that Grossman gave him a 20-percent interest in the Bearsville label and the title of president. (Title inflation meant that the “president” was the number-two person in most record companies, typically reporting to the “chairman.”) Not long thereafter Paul retained my company to do the PR for all of Bearsville’s artists.

    Paul had met Stevie at a Warners sales convention and a romance had promptly blossomed. Fleetwood Mac’s album Rumours was the best-selling album in America at the time. (It would remain number one for thirty-nine weeks, a feat that has never been duplicated.) Stevie had written and sung “Dreams,” the biggest hit on Rumours, a haunting, beautiful, and bitter song about her highly publicized breakup with Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Lindsey had reciprocated by writing the biting “Go Your Own Way” about Stevie. …”